Okay
“Okay,” Denise said. “But this doesn’t prove anything.”
Her reaction surprised Patrick. He’d expected her to agree, of course. He was a mind controller; making his victims do what he wanted was his whole deal.
What was surprising was her cool, calm reaction to his request that she take off her shirt.
Patrick had been bullied his whole life—he’d grown up the archetypal nerd, and spent years trying to shake the image. Just before high-school ended, he’d started working out, and had even developed a few muscles. He’d paid through the nose to get his hair styled, to get a wardrobe that suited him, to get surgery so he no longer had to wear glasses...he’d even managed to afford a nice car, but nothing worked. No matter what he did, he knew couldn’t escape his inherent nerdiness.
When he’d started at college, he hadn’t even bothered approaching anyone in his class; he knew what the result would be. Rejection, teasing, forced isolation. It would be high school all over again. Patrick had spent the past six months keeping to himself, refusing to get sucked into any interactions with his fellow students. He knew how it would end.
His loneliness was only highlighted by the emails he got, inviting him to all manner of events: keggers, private lingerie parties, charity functions, beer nights, all due to a glitch in the system that gave him another student’s emails. What were the odds of there being another Xuji Patrick Cabarello on campus? Whoever he was, he seemed to be a bit of a ladies man—he was constantly getting pinged by women, wanting to know more about him, wanting to come over and hang out, cook for him.
The worst part was the time that the other Xuji received an email from Denise.
Denise was Patrick’s ultimate dream-girl. He’d met her on his first day—they’d shared a Quantum Physics class, and Patrick hadn’t been able to look away. She was a beautiful blonde—big blue eyes, long flowing hair, and the greatest body that Patrick had ever seen.
When the professor had asked his first question of the semester, only two hands had gone up—his, and Denise’s. They both knew the Planck Constant, to ten decimal places...Denise was beautiful, smart, and kind as well. From the sounds of the email, she’d noticed the other Xuji in class, found out that he was new, and offered to show him around.
Obviously if she’d known she was accidentally emailing him, Patrick the nerd, she would never have bothered. It was such a double standard—when she knew the equation for the Weyl quantization he’d found it insanely attractive, but he knew that she’d just find his knowledge of the Kochen-Specker theorum pathetic. He’d have killed to spend just a half-hour being shown around by Denise, but it just wasn’t to be. She wanted the wrong Xuji.
So Patrick spent most of first six months on campus alone; studying, working out, volunteering with the homeless...and working on his inventions every chance he got.
In high school, Patrick had discovered a way of trebling the capacity of a standard hard drive, and the money he’d made selling the technology had paid for his course. (and his new look, eye surgery, sportscar, and small island for his vacations.) He was always tinkering with electronics, and that morning, he’d made a breakthrough.
He’d discovered a device that let him control minds.
“Prove it,” Denise had responded when Patrick explained he was going to control her mind.
Half an hour earlier he’d ambushed Denise and invited her back to his mansion. She’d agreed, of course—the watch made sure of that—and when he had her alone, he’d told her about his invention, and about his plans for her.
“Prove it,” she’d demanded, one eyebrow raised and a smirk dancing around her lips. It made sense—Patrick knew that anyone would be skeptical, especially someone with a scientific mind like Denise. But annoyingly, she didn’t seem to accept any proof that he offered.
“Well...you’re here, aren’t you?” he’d asked.
“That doesn’t prove anything. I heard you had a cool place, and I wanted to check it out. You’re a good guy, I knew I’d be safe.”
“Yeah, but...I’m not really a good guy. I’m about to control your mind with my latest invention...”
Patrick had no idea how it worked; he’d been trying to find a way to make his watch switch between time-zones with the press of a button (it was an analog watch) and while he’d been playing around, a particularly attractive girl from his course had passed by, Holly.
Holly was the exact kind of girl who would never give Patrick a second glance—she was dressed in denim shorts, flip-flops on her feet, and a button-up shirt tied up around her breasts, revealing her sexy midriff. She had long red hair, and a cheeky grin.
She’d stopped and asked what he was doing. Her voice drove him mad...she was either unaware of the sultry, sticky way that she spoke, or she just did it to rub in the fact that he would never have a girl like her. Even when she just said hello, her voice dripped sex, and Patrick sometimes found himself erect just from a conversation with the girl.
“Hey Holly,” Patrick had replied. “I’m just working on fixing my watch.”
He cursed himself—he’d opened up the floodgates. Now Holly was going to let everyone know that Patrick, the nerdy kid, did stupid stuff like fix his own watch. He could imagine the beatings now; just like in high-school. Everything he did made him a magnet for bullying, whether it was standing up for the gay kid in his class, or when he grew two feet in a single year, making him the stupid-looking 6′3″ lanky kid.
He braced himself for the inevitable cry of “NERD!", waited for her to dump her bowl of pudding onto his head, but to his surprise...her reaction was quite different.
She’d seemed interested.
She’d leaned forward, giving Patrick a great view of her cleavage, and asked a few questions. There’d been no teasing, no laughing, no mockery...
And that’s when Patrick realised what had happened: for some reason, his tinkerings with the old watch had turned it into a mind-control device.
“You say that, but I don’t see any evidence of proof.”
“Denise, raise one arm.”
“Okay,” Denise replied, and raised one arm. She didn’t look at all worried. In fact, she was grinning.
“Does that prove it to you?”
“Not at all. Maybe I just wanted to raise that arm.”
“But then...how am I supposed to prove my power? Anything I ask you to do, you can do and then claim that you wanted to do it all along.”
“It’s simple,” Denise replied, stepping closer to Patrick. She put one hand against the side of his face, and stared him directly in the eyes.
“Just ask me to do something I wouldn’t normally do.”
It didn’t make a lot of sense—it was an old watch that he’d inherited from his grandpa. It didn’t have any parts that could emit a signal; it didn’t even have any electronics. But somehow, while trying to add functionality to the time-piece, it had turned into a device that controlled the actions of people around him.
Ever the scientist, Patrick did a few more tests—he asked Holly if he could borrow a screw-driver, and she ran all the way across campus to her dorm to get him one. He asked what she was doing that night, and she cancelled her plans without hesitation to go see a movie with him. He’d even told her what to wear, and when he showed up in his Enzo to pick her up, she’d been wearing exactly what he’d requested.
The ultimate test, however, came after the movie, when he dropped her home. He asked her for a kiss goodnight, and she’d agreed—Holly, practically a goddess among women, had kissed him, a lowly, pathetic nerd.
Patrick couldn’t sleep that night—he’d done it! He’d discovered a watch that allowed him to control minds. All he had to do was wear it, and he could make all his dreams come true.
He went out with Holly again the next night, and this time got to second base with her—a kiss with tongue. He kept seeing her, night after night, and after two weeks had passed, he decided to see if his watch could pass the ultimate test...
“Give me some money out of your wallet.”
“Okay.”
She reached into her wallet, pulled out a single dollar bill, and tucked it into the front of Patrick’s pants.
“Why would you do that if I wasn’t controlling you?”
“Well, you did drive us here. I don’t want to be a moocher...maybe that’s my share of the gas money.”
“Take down your ponytail.”
“Okay.”
“Well?”
“Maybe you just reminded me that I’m more comfortable when my hair’s down.”
“Cluck like a chicken.”
“Okay.”
Denise clucked like a chicken, softly and seductively, her grin never leaving her mouth.
“Why would anyone do that, if I don’t have any power?”
“Maybe I’m just messing with you. Maybe I just want to win this argument.”
“Fine. You want me to ask you to do something you wouldn’t normally do?”
“It’s the only way you’ll prove anything.”
“Take off your shirt.”
At the end of the date, when Patrick dropped Holly off, he’d invited himself in for a drink. She’d agreed, of course; since he’d “fixed” his watch, he couldn’t think of anything he’d asked Holly to do that she hadn’t agreed to. The watch even seemed to be conditioning her—he’d noticed that she regularly looked at him for approval, and seemed to be happy when she was making him happy.
He’d been very direct as soon as they were inside—he’d asked her for a drink, she’d run to fetch it for him. He’d asked her to show him her bedroom, and she’d obliged without question. He’d asked if she wanted to change into anything more comfortable, and she’d returned in minutes, wearing a bathrobe and slippers. He’d asked her to show him what was under the ‘robe, and for the first time in his life, Patrick found himself looking at a beautiful woman wearing sexy lingerie, just for him.
Holly looked nervous, and Patrick the guilt that had been piling up all weak come to a head. Holly must have been scared, her body acting without her permission, bringing a guy into her home, making her fetch him drinks and dress up for him. No wonder she looked nervous, she must be terrified of what he was going to ask her next, the question that was rolling around in his head, the ultimate test...
But before he could even decide whether he could do it, whether he could ask someone to have sex against their will, Holly pulled him towards her, pulled him onto the bed...
It wasn’t until afterwards, as they lay together post-coitus in Holly’s small bed, that Patrick realised what must have happened. The watch must work even without direct speech—in his head, he’d been thinking about asking Holly to have sex, to make love like an animal (which she had)—the watch must have picked up on this, and transmitted it like an order.
He knew now that it worked. He’d had an amazing night with Holly, had felt her climax under him, again and again, and had finally felt release himself. With evidence that it worked, he knew what he had to do next—he had to use it on Denise.
Holly stirred, and sleepily pulled him towards her for a kiss. He had to use it on Denise, but maybe after just one more roll in the hay with Holly...she was clearly enjoying it. Who was really being harmed?
“Come on, Denise. How can you possibly have wanted to take your top off?”
Denise shrugged, still smiling. Her breasts were held firmly and proudly by a white cotton bra. Patrick had dreamt of seeing them since he’d first met Denise, but he made an effort to keep his eyes on her face.
“Maybe I like you.”
“You really want me to prove this to you?”
“I dare you.”
“Denise, I want you to...go down on me.”
She didn’t miss a beat.
“Okay.”
“You can’t still think you’re doing this of your own free will!”
“Sure I can,” Denise said, as she slipped his hardness into her mouth.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
She paused, his erection in her hand, and grinned up at him.
“Maybe I think you’re cute, Patrick. Maybe I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.”
He knew he had to push it.
“Let me spank you.”
“Okay.”
Denise rolled over, and presented her ass for Patrick’s pleasure.
“Let me...have sex with you.”
“Okay.”
Denise stood up, and started undressing.
“Go to class naked tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“Surely you must agree this proves my point!”
“Not at all. Maybe I have an exhibitionistic streak. Maybe I enjoy being spanked. Maybe it’s been a while since I had sex.”
As Denise took the last of her clothes off, Patrick suddenly realised what was happening. This was the beauty of the watch—it didn’t just remove people’s will, it changed their desires and made them think that they’d always been this way. Ordinarily, someone like Denise wouldn’t even talk to someone like him, but with the watch...her mind had been fooled into thinking that she’d always wanted him, always wanted to be a sex slave.
He suddenly realised the true power that he held in his hand; he didn’t just shape people’s actions, he shaped their minds as well. Patrick realised that his invention was too powerful for any one person to control—he had to destroy it. He didn’t know how he’d created it, so once it was gone, its power was gone forever.
But before it did, he wanted just one more gift from it.
“Denise...”
“Mmm?”
“Be my girlfriend?”
“Okay.”